I accept a lot of new members and one nighters. Most guests IB, but new members can’t.
Came in a booking for one night, weeks in advance, empty profile, a full body picture, which can be hardly distinguishec on the phone app. We exchange a few messages, I ask to learn more about the guest and her planning, with just a token success, but what the heck, she looks fit enough to climb my stairs, there are some dots bedside the shape, which could be art works, it’s one night, we will survive that and I’m on a train with hardly any access to the net in railway stations. I accept.
I don’t get basic travel infos over the next week, so I send her the standard instructions.
She arrives earlier then announced and when I say so, surprised on my knees removing some crumbs, she is annoyed .
she refuses a glass of water or tea, but asks me for directions to her destination. That’s tricky, not indicated on any map. I find the tiny street onlines, it seems to be an alley within an hospital area. I print an itinerary for her and search it on the normal maps too. Not there, but the hospital is. All the time, she asks me intrusive questions about my finances, my health, the bird, the place. I show her some pictures of my summer project to insulate the ceiling, to answer the question, if it’s not cold in winter. Then she declares a need to sleep and goes to bed. I have a shared room listing, the bed is onthe loft over the kitchen and it’s not common, that locals sleep at dinner time. People arriving from a 12 hour flight, maybe, but from a town 1 hour away? I let her sleep, hungry, and work a bit longer next door. She sleeps. I write a story about it. 90 minutes later, her alarm goes off. I sneeze and get more questions on my health through the door.
I take my bird and enter the kitchen to get something into my rumbling stomach. I had only a fruit at noon. Cooking dinner is out of the question, I prepare a fast salad whilst getting more questions on that and the parrot. Why indeed would a parrot bite her?
One never knows, but he stays in the cage.
i flee with bird and bowl and leave her to her preparations. I just raise the question, when she will return, as the garden lights switch off at midnight. I could extend that. No need, she will use the phone light to see the lock. I will be in bed by thenand she will have to make ger own breakfast. After 11 pm, the place is an entire unit.
i get up early, but prepare coffee in my room, chatting in a forum about the experience. I hear her stirring and then open the door. It’s not 9 yet, but she is outside, so I open my door and say good bye. I get key and maps back.
I leave a short review, 3 stars for communication and a private remark not to ask such intrusive questions. I don’t check recommend.
Days later, I get a review. 2 stars. French, the gist is: I was very deceived, it’s not an artist’s atelier, it’s a garden hut, there is no privacy. I felt so uncomfortable, I had to find another solution to sleep.
In the private feedback, it was worse, spiteful. “Whatyou call an artist’s atelier, I call a refurbished garden hut...” forgot the rest. She had given 2 stars on quality and something low on cleanliness too, therefore the explanation request came up and she clicked all kind of options. Seems my sheets and towels are not clean and it stinks.
I tried to get the review removed, as it’s an obvious lie: the guest did sleep here. But to say it’s so bad she could not stay, is worse than to say that she found the place horrible.
I think the airbnb terms ask that reviews be truthfull, but no, to say you left, when you stayed is only an opinion, it does not clash with the Term